The A7 is considered a four-door coupe with a dramatically sloping rear hatch.
Courtesy of Jim Fets Photography

Editor's Note: In the second annual CultureMap Auto Awards, our automotive correspondents Nic Phillips and Kevin McCauley bestow honors in 10 categories for the top cars and trucks of 2013/2014 and explain why they're deserving of a good hard look. For our fifth award of the year:

The hotly contested sports sedan segment was invented by the venerable BMW 3-series which dominates the segment with its balance of performance, driving dynamics, efficiency and entry-level luxury young professionals and enthusiasts alike flock to. Most recently challenged by the Cadillac ATS, last year's pick for outright CultureMap Car of the Year, now Lexus is a legitimate alternative with its all new 2014 IS 350 F-Sport.

We say legitimate in that the IS isn't new to the market — it's been boring us since 1998 with unremarkable dynamics, forgettable styling and the signature numbness that made the Lexus brand most known for having been no match for the BMW.

Well, forget all that.

This new IS is the first of Lexus' self proclaimed "car guy" and boss Akio Toyoda's "Wow! I want that!" plan and it drives like no other sports sedan in its class. With a hefty feeling inspiring confidence, one gets the notion this car is buttoned up nose to tail. Interior fit and finish is on par with the flagship LS sedan, last year's CultureMap Luxury Car of the Year, with an industrial robustness more akin to a 1990s era Mercedes Benz than the overly plastic finishes of the BMW 3-series.

While the Audi A7 couple-like sedan isn't all that new, it's now available with a fuel-saving TDI clean diesel engine making it the best looking, most fun to drive "eco-friendly" sports sedan out. The 3-liter V6 diesel is rated at 240-horsepower and a whopping 428 lb-ft of torque — more torque than even the V10 gas engined Audi R8 supercar.

That monster torque, channeled through an industry-best eight-speed automatic transmission, driving all four wheels with Audi's legendary Quattro all-wheel-drive gets the full-size beauty to 60 in just 5.5 seconds — about the same as the Lexus IS 350 F-Sport.

The difference? The A7 delivers that acceleration along with a real world 38 miles-per-gallon highway compared to Lexus' at best 28 mpg.

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